We should ponder our own military adventures

We witness with dismay indicators of a return to the Cold War in Russia's interventions in The Crimea. Before we polish our military boots, we should ponder our own adventures in recent decades as we addressed humanitarian crises, presumably calling for our own interventions.

Are we truly worthy interventionists as moral policemen for the world? Can we truly presume that we have earned humanity's blessing for our entanglements in apparent dictatorial abuses against human rights? Are we justified in destroying in order to save (a rationale in Vietnam)?

How many innocent victims can we justify as we do our policing? Inventories of our history since WWII would hardly support our assumption that we are the most worthy as our brothers' keepers.

Indeed, we have proven ourselves incapable of correcting our own defects in representative government, abundantly demonstrated in the growing disparity in wealth, incomes and political influence. And we cannot find a solution to the climatic destruction our society's exploitation of energy and water resources portends.

Certainly, before we would proudly man our boots in any new global interventions, we need to ponder these realities.

Allan Dean, Swannanoa

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We should ponder our own military adventures

We witness with dismay indicators of a return to the Cold War in Russia's interventions in The Crimea.